Pete Freeman, Back Home Again in Indiana

Meet Our Fellows Blog Series: Pete Freeman

Raised in an old, white wood-framed farmhouse built at the turn of the century by Indiana’s only Titanic survivor, I grew up in a one-stoplight town. Culver, Indiana and its population of 1,000 brought to life what I would later hear John Mellencamp sing of in “Small Town.” By the time my family moved south to the Ohio River, to Hanover, Indiana, in 2003, before relocating to Noblesville, Indiana in 2005, this “small town Indiana” ethos had become a point of pride for me. Admittedly, I had never spent more than a few weeks outside of the state.

My life changed for many reasons the day I received an Eli Lilly Community Endowment Scholarship to attend the University of Notre Dame. As I arrived at freshman orientation, I never imagined spending a cumulative year of my undergraduate career in East and West Africa. Yet upon graduating from Notre Dame, I was the co-director of Ghana’s smallest government-partnered non-governmental organization. As I sang “Notre Dame, Our Mother” one final time before turning my tassel and tossing my cap, I faced a crossroads–continue a burgeoning career in global health abroad in West Africa, or return to those familiar small towns I call “home.”

My understanding of the Lilly Scholarship is that it imparts a charge in its recipients: stay in Indiana, build community, and in so doing create a more just, vibrant, equitable state. Yes, this invitation has to do with brain drain. Yet, it also has to do with a small town, Midwest culture of belonging, place, and home.

I packed my bags, departed Kotoka International Airport in the capital of Ghana, and after a stint in casework submitted my application to enFocus. I chose enFocus because of its commitment to the health and wellbeing of Hoosier communities. In coming home, I returned to those same Northern Indiana communities around which I was raised, now ready to make a full contribution.

Every so often, I’ll drive south along US-31. Passing sunburnt cornfields and rustic grain elevators, I pull off into the small town of Culver. I park and pay visit to the plot of land where the old farmhouse once sat. In the quiet Culver air, I can hear the lapping of waves against the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee. The distant cadence of military cadets drumming as they march in formation. The same summer breeze or winter wind that blew through the tiny holes in those wood-framed walls of childhood. My choice to work with enFocus was about more than employment and skills. My choice to work with enFocus followed a charge, an inspiration to build community where I lived in the formative years of my life.

I am back home again in Indiana.

Learn more about the 2020-2022 enFocus Fellows weekly in our Meet Our Fellows Blog Series.